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TO  THE  SATHER  CAMPANILE  BY 
EDWARD  ROBESON  TAYLOR 


Dedicated  to 

Benjamin  Ide  Wheeler 

President  of  the  University 

March  23^  1915 


PRIVATELY  PRINTED 

FOR  THE  AUTHOR 

BY  TAYLOR,  NASH  AND  TAYLOR 

SAN  FRANCISCO 


•I 

Above  the  noise  and  tumult  of  the  day 
Thou  risest  to  the  silences  of  heaven, 
A  glorious  thing  from  even  unto  even, 

A  beauty's  vision  fading  not  away. 

It  must  have  been  a  more  than  blessed  dream, 
When  all  the  feelings  rose  conjointly  wise 

Against  the  glamour  of  some  worldly  scheme, 
That  moved  her  heart  to  raise  thee  to  the  skies, 

Where  thou  in  all  thy  veins  of  steel  and  stone 
With  Aspiration's  purest  blood  shall  thrill, 

As  evermore  around  thee  shall  be  sown 

The  seeds  of  Learning  and  of  Righteous  Will, 
And  back  of  thee  the  radiant,  everlasting  hill. 


399564 


II 


Gigantic  flower  thou,  whose  beauty  beams 
With  unimagined  loveliness  of  Art, 
Of  all  the  campus  blossoming  the  heart 

And  sublimated  essence  of  its  dreams ; 

Giving  the  fragrance  of  unwonted  blooms 
In  many  a  far-away,  delightsome  dell, 

Or  where  the  cypress  builds  her  heavy  glooms, 
Or  e'en  where  mild-eyed  fairies  love  to  dwell ; 

Where  books  disclose  their  magic-working  lore, 
And  cast  their  cunning  lures  for  stumbling  feet, 

While  sweets  as  strange  as  life  their  joyance  pour, 
Till  all  the  moments  in  one  round  complete 
Within  the  arms  of  Concord  pleasurably  meet. 


Ill 

The  fateful  hours  of  the  passing  day 

From  thee  shall  ever  musically  peal, 

And  through  the  somnolence  of  night  shall  steal, 
Till  lost  in  whispering  echoes  far  away. 
Perpetual  guardian  thou,  whose  tongue  shall  tell 

The  lesson  learnt  in  Indolence's  bowers, 
When  idle  thoughts  the  idle  bosom  swell, 

And  Time  unreaped  its  wretched  prey  devours. 
Yet  shall  thy  bells  of  ever-present  cheer 

Hearten  the  struggle  of  laborious  souls, 
And  Trade  herself  will  turn  a  listening  ear, 

As  she  pursues  her  daily  myriad  goals, 

When  mid  her  roar  thy  golden  voice  the  minute  tolls. 


IV 

/  With  hoary-headed  Time  a  friend  thou'lt  be, 

And  play  with  years  as  with  fresh-hearted  things 
As  thy  emblazoned  crest  forever  springs 

Into  the  wondering  air  divinely  free. 

Here  shall  ambitious  youth  its  vans  wide  spread 
For  flights  beyond  the  rosiest  dreams  of  hope ; 

Or  if  perchance  on  indolences  fed 

With  adverse  circumstance  it  fails  to  cope, 

The  sight  of  thee  upsoaring  lone  and  high, 
With  Aspiration  as  thy  soul  and  seal, 

And  Admonition  blazing  in  thine  eye, 

Will  rouse  it  like  a  battle's  trumpet  peal 

To  every  glorious  thrill  Achievement  dares  to  feel. 


V 


So  firmly  dost  thou  grip  the  rocky  ground, 

Thy  beauteous  form  the  earthquake  might  assail, 
And  storms  upon  thee  all  their  fury  hail, 

Yet  scatheless  at  the  last  thou  wouldst  be  found. 

Still  thou  dost  seem  the  airiest  of  things, 
With  lofty  crest  which  glitters  in  the  air, 

That  blooms  by  day  a  flower  with  radiant  wings, 
At  night  a  beacon  shining  starlike  there. 

So  ever  may  the  men  and  women  here 
Foundationed  be  in  nobleness  of  soul, 

Unshaken  by  the  raging  storms  of  fear, 
A  shining  light  for  every  worthy  goal, 
Undaunted  by  life's  waves  however  mad  they  roll. 


VI 

Thy  roots  strike  deeper  than  the  claws  of  steel, 

And  bolts  and  bonds  that  hold  thee  in  thy  place, 

For  those  are  deep  as  universal  space, 
And  wide  as  every  longing  we  can  feel : 
They  reach  the  great  ideals  that  ever  blaze 

Around  the  empurpled  summits  of  desire, 
Until  as  conquering  Gods  we  bless  our  days 

With  nurturing  breath  of  their  eternal  fire ; 
They  stimulate  the  weary  and  the  weak 

To  march  still  onward  though  the  road  be  hard, 
And  Difficulty's  crown  rejoice  to  seek 

Though  every  passageway  be  doubly  barred, 

And  watchful  dragons  stand  relentless  on  their  guard. 


VII 

Symbol  of  Truth,  thou  ever-precious  one ; 

Thy  winged  word  speaks  from  thy  columned  stone 

With  voice  as  clear  as  that  of  some  dim,  lone, 
Ice-crowned  peak  far  reaching  to  the  sun. 
It  wakes  our  bosom's  golden-hearted  lyre, 

Until  in  music  of  seraphic  strain 
It  lifts  our  thoughts  from  every  low  desire 

Up  to  the  wisdom  of  celestial  gain ; 
And  may  thy  bells  ring  out  in  clarion  sound 

Truth's  sacred  gospel  to  the  willing  breeze, 
Till  all  this  place  in  rightness  be  renowned. 

And  till  adventuring  youth  in  season  sees 

What  is  Life's  vital  wine,  and  what  its  worthless  lees. 


VIII 

Beauty  breathed  gratefulness  when  thou  wert  planned 

She  saw  herself  in  brilliancy  anew, 

Until  from  steel  and  stone  there  nobly  grew 
A  marvelous  thing  transfiguring  the  land. 
She  saw  her  child  as  with  immortal  breath 

Swell  to  the  roots  with  heaven-approving  pride, 
As  he  who  drew  thy  lines  beyond  all  death 

In  triumph  stood  serenely  by  thy  side. 
The  Muse  had  roamed  the  chambers  of  his  soul, 

Where  domes  and  towers  of  song  were  glad  to  be, 
And  there  he  saw  thee  as  his  perfect  goal, 

In  all  the  splendors  of  thy  high  degree, 

Thy  inexpressible,  divine  simplicity. 


Thou  ceaseless  monitor  of  worthy  deeds, 

We  greet  thee  here  as  some  familiar  friend, 

Who  blessing  gives  us  that  can  have  no  end, 
And  all  ennoblement  forever  breeds. 
Imagination  sees  upon  thy  sides 

The  golden  names  of  those  that  never  die ; 
With  those  rare  ones  that  hid  their  latent  prides, 

Yet  did  their  work  that  others  raised  on  high ; 
With  these  thy  stones  in  living  glory  blaze, 

Thy  column  seems  to  pierce  the  vaulted  skies, 
And  as  we  longer  and  the  longer  gaze, 

A  reverential  incense  seems  to  rise 

And  wreath  itself  in  hallowed  words  of  holy  praise. 


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